:Willibald Pirckheimers Briefwechsel, Vol. 5

Polyglot Humanism in Germany <i>circa</i> 1520 as Luther's Milieu and Matrix: The Evidence of the "Rectorate Page" of Crotus Rubeanus

“…The Nuremberg humanist, Willibald Pirckheimer (1470-1530), expressed his views on what humanists should be in his Epistola apologetica for Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522), addressed to Lorenz Beheim on 30 August 1517. 20 According to him, a true humanist theologian has studied first of all the three ancient languages (Latin, Greek, and Hebrew), Siquidem praeter grammaticam litteras latinas, graecas et hebreas callere necesse est. He considered such universally educated people, with moral integrity, to be the "true theologians," who do not need training in scholastic speculations but primarily in the study of the Bible and the Church Fathers.…”